This article is from Huibo Consulting, and the citations in the article are from a number of latest research reports and other materials, so the data is relatively up-to-date, and the latest status information of a number of MEMS production lines and a number of MEMS companies has been sorted out, which can comprehensively show us the current MEMS market environment in China and the world.
MEMS, or microelectromechanical system, is a high-tech electromechanical device developed on the basis of microelectronics technology (semiconductor manufacturing technology) and integrates technologies such as lithography, corrosion, thin film, LIGA, silicon micromachining, non-silicon micromachining, and precision machining. MEMS has a wide range of applications, and consumer electronics, automotive, and industrial are the three largest market segments in the MEMS industry, and the market size is considerable.
Focusing on MEMS, let's start with its basic concept, understand its characteristics, main products, and analyze the development history and current competitive landscape of the industry, interpret the main products of the industry, MEMS sensors, sort out the industrial chain, analyze its main application fields and market space, and look forward to the future development trend, so as to facilitate readers to have an in-depth understanding of this industry.
The content of this article is more comprehensive, mainly including the following points, which can be read on demand:
01 Overview
1.MEMS
2. Features
3. Main products
02 Development history and competitive landscape
1. Development history
2. Competitive landscape
03 Application field and market space
1. Consumer electronics: Consumer electronics continue to develop, and the demand for MEMS continues to grow
2. Automotive: High-reliability and high-performance sensors in the automotive field are the mainstream
3. Industrial field: MEMS inertial products are widely used, and multi-sensor continuous penetration
4. Robotics: New technologies such as humanoid robots have increased the demand for sensors
5. Medical field: The demand for MEMS is growing, and surgical robots have great potential
04 MEMS sensor and industry chain combing
1. MEMS pressure sensor
2. MEMS acoustic sensor
3. MEMS inertial sensor
(1) Development status
(2) Main products
(3) Sorting out the industrial chain
1) Upstream devices
(1) Design link: focus on grasping the investment opportunities of Innosilicon, and pay attention to the progress of the listing of Mingwei Sensing
(2) Production link: attach great importance to the investment opportunities of Sai Microelectronics and the recovery of its profitability
(3) Packaging and testing: The domestic packaging technology is mature, and you can pay attention to Innosilicon, which has calibration and testing capabilities
2) Midstream
3) Downstream
05 Related Companies
1. Sai Microelectronics
2. Innosilicon
3. Const
4. Gaohua Technology
5. Minxin shares
06 Future development trends
1. Growth space in the field of MEMS inertia
2. The high-performance MEMS inertial sensor industry has advanced technology and a considerable market scale
3.AI entry into the market accelerates the industrialization process, MEMS IMUs and related business domestic companies may benefit
07 Refer to the research report
01
overview
1.MEMS
MEMS stands for Micro-Electro Mechanical System, which is a micro-manufacturing technology. MEMS is a miniature device or system that integrates miniature sensors, actuators, mechanical structures, power supplies, signal processing, control circuits, high-performance electronic integrated devices, interfaces, communications, etc. on one or more chips.
2. Features
MEMS has the characteristics of small size, low power consumption, high integration and multi-function. It uses microfabrication technology to integrate mechanical structures and electronic components on chips at the micrometer to nanometer scale. It combines the principles of microelectronics, microfabrication, and mechanical engineering.
3. Main products
MEMS products can be mainly divided into MEMS sensors and MEMS actuators. Among them, MEMS sensors are devices used to detect and detect physical, chemical, biological and other phenomena and signals, while MEMS actuators are devices used to realize behaviors such as mechanical motion, force and torque.
MEMS sensors have multiple classification methods, which can be divided into three categories according to their working principles: physical, chemical, and biological; According to the signal detection mode, it is divided into: capacitive type, resistive type and tunnel current type; According to the classification of MEMS technology fields, it is divided into: inertia, pressure, acoustics, environment and optics, etc.; Or according to the application scenario, it is mainly divided into: consumer electronics, automotive electronics, industry and communications, medical health, defense and aviation, etc.
MEMS actuators can be mainly divided into optical MEMS, microfluidics, RF MEMS, microstructure, micro speakers and ultrasonic fingerprint recognition.
02
Development history and competitive landscape
1. Development history
MEMS technology is known as one of the revolutionary high-tech technologies in the 21st century, and after decades of development, it has been widely used in consumer electronics, automotive, industrial and communications, medical health, high reliability and other fields.
From the perspective of development history, the origin of MEMS can be traced back to the 50s of the 20th century, after the piezoresistive effect of silicon was discovered, scholars began to study silicon sensors; From the late 70s to the 90s of the 20th century, the growth in demand for airbags, brake pressure, tire pressure detection systems and other applications promoted the first wave of the development of the MEMS industry, and pressure sensors and accelerometers achieved rapid development; From the end of the 90s of the 20th century to the beginning of the 21st century, the rise of information technology and the demand for micro-optics promoted the second wave of the development of the MEMS industry, MEMS inertial sensors and MEMS actuators achieved common development, in 1991, capacitive microaccelerometers began to be developed, in 1998, the United States Draper Laboratory developed an earlier MEMS gyroscope, in 1994, Texas Instruments based on optical MEMS micromirrors to push the projector, At the beginning of the 21st century, MEMS inkjet printheads appeared; Since 2010, the increasing abundance of product application scenarios has promoted the third wave of the development of the MEMS industry, such as high-performance MEMS gyroscopes have been used in industrial instruments, aviation, robotics and other aspects. MEMS commercialization expands MEMS technology from its earliest automotive applications to aerospace, industrial, and consumer electronics.
2. Competitive landscape
The market has long been dominated by a small number of overseas giants, and the top ten MEMS manufacturers in the world accounted for 57.94% in 2020, and the market is relatively fragmented. Among them, Bosch ranked first with a share of 14.2%, followed by Broadcom and Weixun United with a share of 9.8% and 5.6% respectively, while the domestic manufacturer Goertek ranked sixth with a market share of 3.9%. According to the 2022 Global MEMS Enterprise Top 30 released by Yole, a total of 6 Chinese companies have entered the list, in addition to Goertek Microelectronics, AAC Technologies, Silex Microsystems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sai Microelectronics, TSMC, Hikvision, and Ruichuang Micro-Nano.
Bosch is the world's largest MEMS company, a pioneer in MEMS sensors for the automotive and consumer electronics industries, and a major global supplier of MEMS sensors, with revenue growth of 12% in 2022.
Broadcom is still in second place but has lackluster growth, while Qualcomm has benefited from the demand for MEMS RF filters for 5G communications, and its MEMS business revenue has achieved a rapid growth of 21% in 2022, successfully entering the top three in the world. STMicroelectronics entered the top 4 due to the growth of MEMS sensors in the automotive market.
In terms of Chinese companies, Goertek Microelectronics is still the Chinese company with the highest ranking in the global MEMS industry, ranking 9th in 2022, but affected by the sluggish demand for consumer electronics, Goertek Microelectronics and the global MEMS microphone giant Knowles (Knowles) will experience a decline in revenue in 2022.
03
Application field and market space
The downstream market of MEMS devices is diverse, and the market space is broad. There are differences in product size, signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity and other index parameters of products of different specifications and models, and the downstream markets of application are also different. MEMS devices have been widely used in consumer electronics, automotive, medical, industrial, communications and other fields.
According to Yole, the global MEMS end market will grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2022 to 2028. Among them, consumer electronics is the largest application market for MEMS, accounting for about 60% of global MEMS revenue in 2022, and the global demand for MEMS devices in the consumer electronics field is expected to grow to $9.4 billion by 2028.
The second is the automotive market, where the demand for MEMS devices in the global automotive market is expected to grow from $2.7 billion to $4.1 billion from 2022-2028. Other MEMS device segments include industrial, defense and aerospace, medical, telecommunications, and others. Thanks to the popularization of 5G networks, the CAGR of the MEMS device market in the communication field is expected to reach 28% from 2022 to 2028, the highest among all fields, and defense and aerospace and automotive rank second and third in the fast-growing MEMS track with CAGR of 8% and 7%, respectively.
1. Consumer electronics: Consumer electronics continue to develop, and the demand for MEMS continues to grow
Consumer electronics is the largest application field in the global MEMS industry, and the main application products include MEMS RF devices, acoustic sensors, pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, etc., which are widely used in mainstream consumer electronics products such as smart phones, smart wireless earphones, and tablet computers. In addition, MEMS sensor products are also widely used in emerging applications such as smart homes and wearable devices that have emerged in recent years, such as MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes, miniature microphones and pulse sensors installed in smart watches, and MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetic sensors used in VR/AR devices to accurately determine the speed, angle and distance of head rotation.
The demand for MEMS devices in consumer electronics is rising rapidly year by year, of which MEMS RF devices account for the largest proportion. As the development of 5G communication networks requires mobile phones to support more and more communication frequency bands, which has promoted the rapid growth of demand for MEMS RF devices, according to Yole data, the global MEMS RF device market in the field of consumer electronics will account for the largest proportion in 2020, reaching 28.69%. The MEMS acoustic sensor is the hardware foundation of intelligent voice and artificial intelligence perception, and the market demand for MEMS acoustic sensors has increased rapidly due to high-quality voice calls, environmental noise reduction and human-computer voice interaction, and its market size of MEMS products in the global consumer electronics field in 2020 will account for 18.22%, ranking second.
RF MEMS is one of the important application fields of MEMS technology, and as a new device with low power consumption and ultra-miniaturized planar structure, it can be applied to the field of mobile communication. The SAW and BAW filters used in mobile phones are key RF devices, which are responsible for filtering the signal frequencies in the communication channel and solving the signal interference problems generated between different frequency bands and communication systems.
According to Resonant statistics, the global RF filter market size increased from $5 billion to $15 billion from 2016 to 2020, with an average compound growth rate of 31.6%, and the market size is expected to exceed $28 billion by 2025.
The demand for acoustic sensors in the field of consumer electronics is second only to RF devices, accounting for 18.22% in 2020. Acoustic sensors are the hardware foundation of intelligent voice and artificial intelligence perception, and the market demand for MEMS acoustic sensors has increased rapidly due to high-quality voice calls, environmental noise reduction, and human-computer voice interaction.
According to Yole data, from 2018 to 2026, the global MEMS acoustic sensor market will grow from US$1.153 billion to US$1.871 billion, with an average annual compound growth rate of 6.24%, and shipments will increase from 5.298 billion to 11.115 billion, with an average annual compound growth rate of 9.7%. From the perspective of supply pattern, according to Yole data, the top five global MEMS acoustic sensor market shares in 2020 are Goertek, Knowles, AAC Technology, Yutai Technology and Minxin.
MEMS microphone is an indispensable device in voice acquisition, and its small size and low power consumption meet the high requirements of smart devices for microphones, and can realize various functions such as voice collection and environmental noise elimination. It has replaced the electret microphone and has become the mainstream device of microphone in many electronic products, and can be used in TWS earphones, mobile phones and other products.
2. Automotive: High-reliability and high-performance sensors in the automotive field are the mainstream
Automotive electronics is one of the earliest application areas of MEMS products, and it is currently the second largest market after consumer electronics, accounting for about 19% of the market size in 2022, according to Yole data. From the late 80s to the 90s of the 20th century, the growth in demand for automotive applications such as airbags and tire pressure detection systems promoted the first wave of the development of the MEMS industry.
According to Yole's data, the global market size of MEMS products in the field of automotive electronics is expected to reach US$4.1 billion in 2028, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 7%.
The application direction and market demand of MEMS products in the field of automotive electronics include anti-lock braking system, electronic body stability program, electronically controlled suspension, electric hand brake, ramp start assist, tire pressure monitoring, engine anti-shake, vehicle inclination measurement and vehicle inner jump detection, etc., at present, each car contains an average of 10-30 MEMS sensors, and about 30 or even hundreds of MEMS sensors will be used in high-end cars.
In addition, autonomous driving has become the future development trend of the automotive industry, and the perception of environmental information is the basis for realizing autonomous driving.
According to Yole data, pressure sensors are currently the most widely used MEMS sensors in the field of automotive electronics, accounting for 33.59% in 2020, and they are widely used in engine management systems, comfort systems, transmission systems and safety systems of automobiles. The first application in automobiles was the MEMS accelerometer, which is used to monitor the operating status of the vehicle and determine whether to activate the airbag during sudden deceleration. Secondly, MEMS gyroscopes are also widely used in body stability systems to enhance driving safety.
At present, the two major trends in the automotive industry are electrification and intelligence, and the application of high-performance MEMS inertial sensors is gradually expanding to the field of autonomous driving in automobiles. MEMS inertial measurement units are increasingly being used for autonomous driving and to assist GPS navigation, using dead reckoning to achieve short-term navigation and improve the user experience.
3. Industrial field: MEMS inertial products are widely used, and multi-sensor continuous penetration
In the industrial field, MEMS products have a broad application space, and the common industrial and communication MEMS devices mainly include accelerometers, gyroscopes, inertial measurement combinations, etc. MEMS can optimize industrial production management and improve industrial production efficiency, such as equipping pressure sensors for feedback control in hydraulic systems and safety control systems, so as to achieve intelligent control; In metallurgy, petrochemical and other industrial production processes, gas sensors are used to monitor specific gas components in real time to improve industrial production efficiency.
The market demand for MEMS products continues to increase with the continuous maturity of industrial Internet applications and the trend of industrial transformation and upgrading. According to Yole, the global industrial MEMS products market size is expected to grow from $2.5 billion in 2022 to $3.1 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of about 4%.
MEMS inertial products are widely used in high-end industrial fields. MEMS products are mainly used in resource exploration and other fields in high-end industrial fields, with rich application scenarios. According to Yole Intelligence data, the market size of MEMS products in the global high-end industrial field was $2.234 billion in 2021, and it is expected that the market size of MEMS products in the global high-end industrial field will reach $3.340 billion in 2027, with a compound growth rate of 7.00% from 2021 to 2027.
With the advantages of high integration and miniaturization, MEMS inertial sensors will replace mechanical inertial sensors such as traditional laser fiber gyroscopes. Take MEMS gyroscope as an example: the development of inertial technology has gone through four stages, and MEMS gyroscope belongs to the third generation of gyroscope. MEMS gyroscopes have the advantages of small size, light weight, low cost and easy mass production, which solves the shortcomings of the first two generations of gyroscopes with large volume, large quality and high cost, and gradually replaces traditional mechanical gyroscopes such as fiber optic gyroscopes and laser gyroscopes in the industrial-grade market with continuously improving accuracy and stability, and is expected to expand its share in the tactical and navigation markets.
4. Robotics: New technologies such as humanoid robots have increased the demand for sensors
On September 24, 2023, TeslaOptimus released a video through social platforms showing the latest progress of the humanoid robot Optimus. Optimus already has the ability to classify objects autonomously, and its neural network training is to obtain information directly from the video input and output control instructions.
In order to realize the "human-like" ability to perceive the external environment, such as vision, hearing, and touch, a complete set of sensors is needed to meet the requirements of different tasks such as object detection and proximity sensing. According to the perception data, robot sensors can be divided into two categories: ontological perception sensors and external perception sensors.
Proptosy sensors collect internal data such as speed, torque, and position of the robot itself, and are commonly used for robot control. Whereas, external perception sensors mainly collect external environment data and perceive environmental parameters such as the position of obstacles, external forces exerted on the robot, and many other inputs.
Ontological perception sensors generally include inertial sensors (IMUs), inclination sensors, torque sensors, magnetic sensors, and compass sensors. External perception sensors can be divided into internal and external sensors, with internal sensors such as 2D lidar, motion capture, and depth camera/3D cameras, and external sensors including ultrasonic sensors, time-of-flight sensors (ToF), tactile sensors (Tactile), and infrared ranging sensors.
According to Stratistics Market Research Consulting, the global humanoid robot market was estimated at $560 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $14.1 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 58.5%. Among them, the Chinese humanoid robot market is expected to reach $2.3 billion in 2027, with a CAGR of 56.4%.
5. Medical field: The demand for MEMS is growing, and surgical robots have great potential
In terms of medical and health, the MEMS market is growing rapidly, and the current common medical MEMS devices mainly include pressure sensors, silicon-based microfluidic control devices, flow meters, acoustic sensors, accelerometers, etc. MEMS sensors are widely used in biological and medical electronics, such as pacemakers, precision surgical instruments, etc.
With developments in in vitro diagnostics, drug research, patient monitoring, drug delivery methods, and implantable medical devices, medical devices need to rapidly improve performance, reduce costs, and shrink in size. Due to the advantages of miniaturization and integration, MEMS products are widely used in the medical field and are developing rapidly. MEMS technology enables medical devices to be miniaturized, automated, intelligent, and reliable, making medical testing, diagnosis, surgery, and treatment more convenient, accurate, and even painless.
MEMS acoustic sensors can be used to achieve miniaturization, high noise reduction performance, low power consumption, high reliability and stability of hearing aids. MEMS pressure sensors can detect the pressure levels of human organs including blood pressure, intraocular pressure, intracranial pressure, etc.; MEMS inertial sensors can be used in cardiac treatment devices; MEMS image sensors are widely used in medical imaging equipment, including CT scans and endoscopes.
The demand for robots in the medical field is also considerable. At present, the combination of collaborative robots + six-dimensional force sensors has been widely used in intelligent solutions in the medical and health care industry in the form of surgical robots, rehabilitation robots, massage physiotherapy robots, medical detection robots (such as nucleic acid detection robots, remote B-ultrasound robots, etc.).
The force perception of the surgical robot can be used as the basis for force feedback to improve the safety of surgery. When the surgical robot has the force feedback function, the doctor can accurately perceive the interaction force between the robot's end tool (or end effector) and the human body, distinguish between healthy tissue and diseased tissue, and carry out precise force output control, so as to avoid secondary damage to the suture site caused by excessive force. Therefore, six-dimensional force sensor products have become a rigid demand in similar application scenarios.
According to GlobalData's forecast, the global surgical robot market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.7% from 2021 to 2030 and is expected to reach $17.1 billion by 2030. The Asia-Pacific region has the third largest surgical robot market after North America, followed by Europe, and has great market potential. The market was valued at USD 1.1 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% from 2021 to 2030.
04
MEMS sensors and industry chain combing
MEMS sensor, is the core element in MEMS, it is a kind of miniature device that converts energy from one form to another and provides users with a usable energy output for a specific measurable input, which is manufactured using microelectronics and micromachining technology.
MEMS sensors are miniature sensors manufactured using microelectronics and micromechanical technology processes. Compared with the traditional sensor needs a variety of mechanical parts, MEMS technology can integrate all the accessories on a very small MEMS chip, the MEMS sensor is composed of MEMS chip and ASIC chip packaging, and its working principle is: MEMS chip converts external physical, chemical, biological and other signals into electrical signals, and ASIC chips read the above electrical signals and process and output, so as to realize the function of external information acquisition.
It has the characteristics of light weight, low power consumption and mass production, and meets the requirements of small size and high performance. There are many types of MEMS sensors, and the common MEMS sensors are pressure sensors, acoustic sensors, acceleration sensors, gyroscopes, inertial sensors, and so on.
1. MEMS pressure sensor
MEMS pressure sensors are mainly divided into piezoresistive and capacitive types, which use MEMS technology to convert pressure signals into electrical signals, which are widely used and low cost. It has a wide range of applications in automotive, consumer electronics, industrial, medical and aerospace fields. According to Yole data, the global MEMS pressure sensor market size will be about $2.339 billion in 2022, making it the second largest product in MEMS devices.
2. MEMS acoustic sensor
MEMS acoustic sensor is a sensor that uses MEMS technology to convert acoustic signals into electrical signals, which has the advantages of small size, low power consumption, good consistency, reliability and strong anti-interference ability, and is widely used in consumer electronics fields such as smart phones, smart wireless earphones, tablet computers, smart wearable devices and smart homes, as well as automotive electronics.
With the rapid development of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and 5G, MEMS acoustic sensors have become the hardware foundation for intelligent voice and artificial intelligence perception. At the same time, new application scenarios such as human-computer interaction, health monitoring, environmental monitoring, industrial interconnection, and metaverse are emerging, promoting the rapid expansion of MEMS acoustic sensor application scenarios.
3. MEMS inertial sensor
(1) Development status
The R&D and construction of MEMS inertia technology is related to the construction of national economy and national security. During the "Ninth Five-Year Plan" period, the mainland regarded the development of high-performance MEMS inertial sensors as a strategy for the development of military micro-nano technology, and carried out technical research closely around the needs of miniature inertial measurement units (MIMUs).
In the past 30 years, MEMS inertial sensors have moved from laboratory exploration and research to engineering applications, and great progress has been made in technology and products, and has been widely used in consumer electronics, vehicle navigation, Internet of Things, industrial equipment and high-end equipment.
From the perspective of the achievements in the global market and the continental MEMS inertial navigation field, high-performance MEMS inertial sensor products have been popularized and applied, and the main technical links such as MEMS inertial sensor design, manufacturing, packaging and testing have been mastered in China, and it has the ability to develop high-performance MEMS inertial sensor products; MEMS inertial sensors are used in intelligent assisted driving, and at the same time, domestic enterprises will apply MEMS six-axis inertial sensors to intelligent assisted driving, mantis out of a new path in the subdivision of vehicle positioning, walking in the forefront of the world, in the field of consumer electronics MEMS inertial sensors, there are also supply chain security problems in the consumer field, under the background of localization substitution, system manufacturers have a huge demand for MEMS gyroscopes and MEMS accelerometer products, and domestic enterprises have ushered in new development opportunities.
(2) Main products
MEMS inertial sensors are mainly used to measure physical properties such as linear acceleration, vibration, shock and inclination, and the main products include accelerometers for measuring linear acceleration and uniaxial or multi-axis vibration sensors with the same principle, gyroscopes for measuring angular velocity, magnetic sensors for sensing magnetic field strength, and a combination of various inertial sensors.
MEMS inertial sensors are mainly used in consumer electronics and automotive electronics. In the field of consumer electronics, inertial sensors can realize functions such as GPS navigation, screen flipping, game control, camera image stabilization, and hard disk protection. In the field of automotive electronics, MEMS inertial sensors are mainly used in automotive electronic stability systems, GPS-assisted navigation systems, automotive airbags, vehicle attitude measurement, etc.
Inertial sensors work by converting angular velocity into the displacement of a capacitive plate of an inductor using the Coriolis force principle. It can be classified from several aspects, such as vibration structure, material, processing mode, driving mode, detection mode and working mode. The main types of gyroscopes include: tuning fork gyroscope, axisymmetric gyroscope, and hemispherical resonant gyroscope, etc. It is mainly used for inertial navigation, platform stabilization, attitude perception and state detection.
According to Yole data, the global market size of accelerometers in 2022 will be about 1.402 billion US dollars, accounting for 9.67% of the MEMS market space, and its theoretical basis is Newton's second law, which allows the sensor to calculate the acceleration value by measuring the inertial force experienced by the mass during the acceleration process. It can be classified by detection method, number of sensitive axes, and movement mode. The main types of accelerometers include: resonant accelerometers, silicon resonant accelerometers, etc. It can be mainly applied to inertial navigation, platform stabilization, attitude perception and state detection.
(3) Sorting out the industrial chain
The MEMS inertial sensor industry chain can be divided into upstream devices (including design, production, packaging, calibration and testing, etc.), midstream modules, downstream systems, and terminal applications.
1) Upstream devices
Upstream devices are the core of function implementation, and it is recommended to pay attention to high-quality targets in design, production, packaging and testing.
(1) Design link: focus on grasping the investment opportunities of Innosilicon, and pay attention to the progress of the listing of Mingwei Sensing
At present, the number of domestic manufacturers engaged in the design of MEMS inertial sensor components has begun to take shape, but there is still a large gap between the business scope and product performance of different manufacturers. Among the MEMS inertial sensor components, gyroscopes and accelerometers are the most central, and magnetometers are usually used as auxiliaries or supplements, so they are less important than gyroscopes and accelerometers.
(2) Production link: attach great importance to the investment opportunities of Sai Microelectronics and the recovery of its profitability
China continues to accelerate the layout of advanced MEMS production lines, and 8-inch has gradually become the mainstream size and has begun to evolve to 12-inch.
Among the 4 listed companies with MEMS foundry lines, Sai Microelectronics is the most focused company in the field of MEMS processing and manufacturing and supports MEMS inertial sensor products, with a superior market position.
(3) Packaging and testing: The domestic packaging technology is mature, and you can pay attention to Innosilicon, which has calibration and testing capabilities
The domestic MEMS packaging technology is relatively mature, and 4 of the world's top 10 packaging and testing companies are from Chinese mainland, with a total share of about 25%. As far as MEMS packaging is concerned, China also has a relatively mature process and a large number of packaging production lines, among which: most of the MEMS packaging production lines are distributed in the eastern coastal areas, such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, etc.; And most of the production lines mainly provide OEM services, and some production lines serve their own products.
2) Midstream
Midstream modules may be the main application form in the future. In addition to the manufacturers with the design capabilities of MEMS inertial sensing core components to expand downstream, the manufacturers currently engaged in the production of MEMSIMU modules also include some manufacturers who do not have the design capabilities of core components but have rich experience in vehicle specifications, such as Huayi Technology and Daoyuan Electronics.
Among the four listed companies engaged in the production of MEMSIMU modules, including Huayi Technology, which has completed the fixed-point designation, and Zhonghaida, which has achieved shipments, they attach importance to the opportunities brought by the evolution of autonomous driving to a higher level for high-precision IMU manufacturers.
3) Downstream
Downstream systems are currently the main application form. The companies engaged in the R&D and production of MEMS inertial navigation system/integrated navigation system are mainly upstream manufacturers with IMU production capacity, and some companies with advantages in the field of satellite navigation and positioning, such as Zhonghaida and CTI Navigation.
Among the 6 listed companies engaged in the production of inertial navigation systems/integrated navigation systems, related companies based on the progress and market position of vehicles include Jingwei Hengrun and CTI Navigation.
05
Related Companies
1. Sai Microelectronics
Sai Microelectronics is deeply engaged in the field of MEMS microsystems, and gradually transformed into a MEMS technology development service and pure foundry through the acquisition of Silex in Sweden. Founded in 2008 and listed on the GEM in 2015, the predecessor of Saiwei Electronics, Saiwei Technology is mainly engaged in navigation business and avionics business. In 2016, through the wholly-owned acquisition of Ruitong Xinyuan, it obtained a controlling stake in Silex, a Swedish company leading in the field of MEMS pure foundry, and in the same year, the company began to plan the construction of FAB 38-inch MEMS foundry in Beijing. In 2019, the company completed a non-public offering and introduced a strategic shareholder, the National Integrated Circuit Industry Fund, and in 2021, the company completed a non-public offering to raise 2.3 billion yuan, indicating its determination to increase its entry into MEMS local manufacturing. Since the beginning of 2020, the company has gradually divested its non-semiconductor business, which has been basically completed by 2022. At present, the company's main business is divided into MEMS process development and MEMS foundry manufacturing.
The company's wholly-owned subsidiary, Silex Sweden, is the world's leading pure MEMS foundry, serving the world's leading manufacturers in various fields, and is continuing to expand its production capacity in Sweden. At the same time, the company's holding subsidiary, Cylex Beijing, has been put into operation and continues to promote the ramp-up of production capacity, so it is reasonable to expect the company to continue to maintain the global leading position of pure MEMS foundry. According to Yole's statistics, since 2012, Sweden's Silex has been ranked among the top five in the global MEMS foundry revenue ranking, and continues to compete with STMicroelectronics, TELEDYNEDALSA, TSMC, Sony (SONY) and other manufacturers, and ranked first among global MEMS pure foundries from 2019 to 2022. It ranked 26th in the comprehensive ranking of global MEMS vendors in 2022. With the successive construction and operation of new production lines and production capacity at home and abroad, the company as a whole will continue to maintain the first echelon in the global MEMS manufacturing industry competition.
Sai Microelectronics is positioned in the midstream foundry link and has strong process development capabilities. The MEMS industry has the characteristics of multiple product categories and non-standardized processes, which cannot support the entire product generation through a single process. Adopting a different process strategy for each individual product, and facing the highly customized attributes of each customer, foundries need to continuously develop processes, so the knowhow of the process platform and the management of production require long-term experience accumulation. Silex, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, has 164 domestic/international MEMS core patents, and has the ability to develop multiple projects in parallel to meet the diversified and multi-batch needs of customers.
Saiwei has a wide range of products, global sales channels, a solid customer base, and good market reserves. The company's MEMS products include silicon-based microphones in the consumer electronics field, inertial sensors in the industrial production field, micromirrors in the automotive and optical communication fields, microfluidics/chip laboratories in the biomedical field, RF chips in the wireless communication field, and silicon photonics in the optical communication field. The company's customers cover various industries around the world, including the world's leading DNA/RNA sequencer, lithography machine giants, new ultrasound equipment giants, network communication and application giants, and leading companies in industrial and consumer segments.
The company's production capacity mainly includes Sweden production capacity and Beijing production capacity. The company has a mature MEMS wafer factory in Sweden, including two 8-inch production lines; It has a MEMS wafer factory in Beijing that has been completed and operated, with large-scale production capacity, including an 8-inch production line; Both fabs are in a state of continuous expansion, of which the Swedish production line has promoted the expansion through the purchase of some equipment and the acquisition of semiconductor industrial parks to meet the order needs of related customers; The Beijing production line is mainly to continuously expand the production capacity from the current 12,000 wafers per month to 30,000 pieces per month, and continue to expand wafer categories and customer areas.
2. Innosilicon
Founded in 2012, the company's main business is the R&D, testing and sales of high-performance silicon-based MEMS inertial sensors, and it will be listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in June 2023. The company operates in a Fabless model, focusing on the R&D and design of MEMS inertial sensor chips, while wafer fabrication and chip packaging are entrusted to wafer fabrication and packaging fabs.
At present, the company has formed a high-performance MEMS inertial sensor product system with independent intellectual property rights and realized mass production and application, formed a technical closed loop in the main links of MEMS inertial sensor chip design, process scheme development, packaging and testing, and established a complete business process and supply chain system.
The company's main products are high-performance MEMS inertial sensors, whose core performance indicators have reached the international advanced level, and are widely used in high-reliability, high-end industrial and other fields. The company's high-performance MEMS inertial sensor products mainly include MEMS gyroscopes, MEMS accelerometers and inertial measurement units (IMUs), the former two of which contain a MEMS chip and an ASIC chip to realize the perception of object motion attitude and trajectory through inertial technology, and the latter is a combination of MEMS gyroscope and accelerometer. After years of exploration and development, the company's products have achieved mass application and continuous upgrading and iteration, its high-performance MEMS inertial sensors have strong adaptability in complex environments, and the core performance indicators of the products have reached the international advanced level, which are widely used in high-end industry, unmanned systems and high reliability and other fields.
The company has no controlling shareholder, and the actual controller is Jin Xiaodong. As of the end of 2023, MEMSLink, Northern Electronics Institute, Beijing Innosilicon, Baoding Jiulei and Xuan Peiqi are the top five shareholders of the company, holding 20.20%, 20.00%, 13.48%, 3.5% and 2.88% of the company's shares respectively. A single shareholder whose resolution of the board of directors has a significant impact, so the company has no controlling shareholder.
A number of core technical personnel of the company are in the senior management to escort the continuous update and iteration of the product. Mr. Hua Yaping, director, deputy general manager and core technical personnel of the company, served as an engineer of China Huajing Electronics Group Corporation from July 1987 to May 1996; From June 1996 to November 1999, he served as a senior engineer at Applied Materials China Co., Ltd.; From December 1999 to December 2008, he served as the director and deputy general manager of MEMSIC Semiconductor (Wuxi) Co., Ltd.; From January 2009 to May 2011, he served as the deputy general manager of Senodia Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.; From June 2011 to September 2012, he served as a senior technical consultant of Wuxi China Resources Shanghua Semiconductor Co., Ltd.; Since October 2012, he has served as the deputy general manager of Innosilicon Co., Ltd./Innosilicon; Since February 2019, he has served as a director of Innosilicon Co., Ltd. / Innosilicon. Mr. Zhang Xibo, director, deputy general manager and core technical personnel of the company, served as an analog circuit engineer of Tianjin Zhongjing Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. from September 2003 to June 2008; From July 2008 to September 2011, he served as a senior analog circuit engineer of Beijing Kuntianke Microelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.; From October 2011 to June 2012, he served as a senior analog circuit engineer at Texas Instruments Semiconductor Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. Beijing Branch; Since July 2012, he has successively served as the director and deputy general manager of simulation design of Innosilicon Co., Ltd./Innosilicon; Since August 2020, he has served as a director of Innosilicon Co., Ltd. / Innosilicon.
The company emphasizes scientific and technological research and development, and pays attention to the construction of R & D team. The company has established a relatively complete gradient R&D team, and has established a dedicated R&D team in the fields of MEMS gyroscopes, MEMS accelerometers and pressure sensors, covering the main links such as MEMS inertial sensor chip design, MEMS process scheme development, packaging and testing; By the end of 2023, the company has a total of 78 R&D personnel, accounting for 50% of the company's total headcount, and the proportion of doctors/masters in the R&D team is 6%/45% respectively. The company attaches great importance to the construction of R&D team, which has laid the foundation for the continuous update and iteration of its products.
The company's performance has grown steadily in recent years, with a revenue CAGR of 41.15% from 2019 to 2023, and it has strong profitability. In terms of operating income, the company's revenue from 2019 to 2023 will be 80 million yuan, 109 million yuan, 166 million yuan, 227 million yuan, and 317 million yuan respectively, with a substantial increase in revenue volume and a relatively stable growth rate, with a CAGR of about 41.15% during the period, mainly due to: 1) the company's downstream users have successively verified and introduced, and the number of projects entering the trial production and mass production stages has gradually increased; 2) The company's high-performance MEMS gyroscopes are gradually replacing some industry applications of fiber optic gyroscopes and laser gyroscopes, and the miniaturization of products is more suitable for the development trend of the industry. In terms of net profit, from 2019 to 2023, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company was 38 million yuan, 52 million yuan, 83 million yuan, 117 million yuan, and 165 million yuan respectively, with a relatively stable growth trend, with a CAGR of about 44.51% during the period, and a net profit margin of 47.47%, 47.80%, 49.73%, 51.40%, and 52.16% respectively, which remained at a high level for a long time and had strong profitability.
MEMS gyroscopes contribute the main revenue, and high R&D expenses lay the foundation for stable growth. In terms of revenue structure, MEMS gyroscopes contribute the main revenue, accounting for 85.05%, 77.69%, 80.13%, 80.63%, and 82.13% of the revenue from 2019 to 2023, respectively, stable at about 80%, which is the main source of the company's revenue, and MEMS accelerometers and inertial measurement units also have a considerable revenue scale, accounting for 5.21% and 7.12% of the revenue in 2023, respectively. In terms of the expense ratio during the period, the company's R&D expense rate is high, which is 19.20%, 23.96%, 24.39%, 24.57% and 25.29% respectively from 2019 to 2023, and the company's R&D expense rate has always remained at a high level, laying the foundation for the company's continuous update and iteration of products and the expansion of mass production scale on the client.
The company's product performance has reached the international advanced level, the domestic scarcity is strong, and the comprehensive gross profit margin is at a high level in the industry. From 2019 to 2023, the company's comprehensive gross profit margin will be 90.24%, 87.95%, 85.39%, 85.92%, and 83.01% respectively, showing a slight downward trend overall, but it is still at a high level in the industry. Promote the company's gross profit margin to maintain a high level in the industry.
3. Const
The company is a leading domestic medium and high-end pressure, temperature and humidity calibration test instrument. Founded in 1998, the company is a high-end testing instrument enterprise integrating mechatronics, software algorithm development and precision manufacturing, the main business is the research and development, production and sales of digital testing instrument products, auxiliary testing digital platform, and provides global users with high-performance and high-reliability pressure, process signal, temperature and humidity detection product solutions.
The company's founders, Mr. Jiang Weili and Mr. He Xin, majored in physics, measurement technology related fields, after graduating in the 80s, they worked in Jilin's measurement and testing institutes, the company was established in 1998, at the beginning of the 21st century, began to develop pressure calibration test related products, the core scientific and technological personnel participated in the formulation of relevant national standards, the company's business gradually expanded from pressure calibration test products to temperature and humidity, process signal calibration testing, digital products, Some of the company's high-end pressure testing products and temperature and humidity testing products have been at the world's leading level.
At present, 90% of the company's export products are sold to industrially developed regions such as the United States, Europe and Japan, and the face price of some highly competitive flagship products is 10% higher than that of international competitors, and the competitiveness of the international market continues to grow, accounting for 43% of the revenue in the international market in 2023. The company's customers are mainly concentrated in the process industry, and the top four downstream industries in the domestic market at the end of 2023 are metrology and testing, metallurgical machinery and equipment, electric power and petrochemical, and the international market is petrochemical, biomedicine, electric power and metering and testing.
The company's main business includes:
Calibration and testing business: 1) Digital pressure detection products: including digital pressure gauges, intelligent pressure calibrators, automatic pressure calibrators, intelligent pressure generators, intelligent pressure controllers, pressure calibrators, etc.; 2) Temperature and humidity testing products: including intelligent dry furnace, intelligent thermometer, intelligent precision thermostat, intelligent precision verification furnace, temperature and humidity automatic verification system, etc.; 3) Process signal detection products: including intelligent process calibrator, explosion-proof intelligent process calibrator, etc.
Digital platform business: The main operating body is the subsidiary Mingde Software, which provides solutions through the digital platform to assist users in realizing the asset management of instruments, and the combination of software and hardware solutions has a competitive advantage.
Sensor business: As of the end of 2023, the company's high-precision pressure sensors have achieved the productization of multiple models of sensors with a comprehensive performance index of 0.01% F.S and a gauge pressure range/composite range covering (-0.1~10) MPa, laying a solid foundation for the improvement of the comprehensive product array and production line construction of the sensor business in the next step, as well as further reducing the comprehensive cost.
The company's shareholding structure is clear, and the actual controllers are Mr. Jiang Weili and Mr. He Xin, who directly hold a total of 28% of the company's shares. In addition, the National Social Security Fund holds 1.16% of the shares.
The company's key subsidiaries include: 1) Jinan Changfeng Zhiyuan is responsible for the research and development, production and sales of some of the company's high-end temperature and humidity testing products; 2) Nanjing Mingde is responsible for the construction of the company's digital platform and provides users with overall solutions for testing informatization; 3) Additel is responsible for the sales and business operation of the company's related testing products in the international market; 4) Beijing Sangpu Xinyuan is responsible for the production and manufacturing of the company's related testing products, and is the main operator of the company's Yanqing intelligent manufacturing base.
The company's revenue achieved solid growth. From 2017 to 2023, the company's revenue increased from 203 million yuan to 498 million yuan, with a revenue CAGR of 16% from 2018 to 2023, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased from 53 million yuan to 102 million yuan, with a CAGR of 11% from 2018 to 2023.
The company's profitability has improved in 2023. From 2017 to 2022, the company's gross profit margin declined, mainly due to factors such as U.S. trade tariffs and product structure. In 2023, the company's gross profit margin will be 64.45%, an increase of 0.96pp year-on-year, and the net profit margin will be 20.35%, an increase of 2.03pp year-on-year.
4. Gaohua Technology
Gaohua Technology Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise with R&D, design, production and sales of high-reliability sensors and sensor network systems as its main business. Relying on the independent innovation advantages of high-reliability sensor products, the company's core products have the characteristics of high reliability, good consistency and high integration, which have attracted the attention of aerospace customers earlier, successfully participated in the project supporting of manned space projects, and are gradually applied to various high-reliability fields.
The company's main products and services include all kinds of pressure, acceleration, temperature and humidity, displacement and other sensors, as well as the use of the above sensors and integrated signal transmission processing technology to provide customers with sensor network system solutions, which belongs to the core field of the electronic information industry. The main application fields of the company's products are aerospace, aviation, weapons, rail transit, construction machinery, metallurgy, etc. At the same time, the company has the ability to independently design MEMS sensor chips and ASIC conditioning circuits, and will gradually apply them to its main business products through continuous R&D investment.
The company has been deeply involved in the sensor business for more than 20 years and has a deep accumulation. Nanjing Gaohua Technology Co., Ltd., the predecessor of Gaohua Technology, was established in 2000 with a registered capital of 1 million yuan. In 2013, a wholly-owned subsidiary, Nanjing Gaohua Sensing Technology Co., Ltd., was established with a registered capital of 18 million yuan. From 2015 to 2018, the company was listed on the New Third Board. In 2021, the company received a Series A investment of RMB 186 million, and invested in Nanjing Guosheng Defense Equipment Co., Ltd. and Wuxi Internet of Things Innovation Center Co., Ltd. in 2017 and 2018 respectively. In 2023, the company will be officially listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company focuses on R&D, design, production and sales of high-reliability sensors and sensor network systems, and has won honors such as "2022 National Specialized and New Little Giant Enterprise".
Among the founders of the company, Li Weiping and She Dequn have worked in the 214th Institute of China North Industries Group and have strong scientific research capabilities. From August 1987 to January 2000, Li Weiping, chairman and general manager of the company, served as a senior engineer of the 214th Research Institute of China North Industries Group Corporation, undertaking 3 national projects and 4 provincial projects, and was awarded the 2022 Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Leading Talent of the Ministry of Science and Technology (recommended by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology). She Dequn, director and deputy general manager of the company, served as a senior engineer of the 214th Research Institute of China North Industries Group Corporation from August 1988 to January 2000, undertaking 2 national projects and 2 provincial projects, and won the Nanjing Science and Technology Progress Award for the MEMS mechanical sensor project for the Internet of Things.
The company's shareholding structure is clear. The largest shareholder is Li Weiping, the legal representative of the company, and the actual controllers are Li Weiping, Shan Lei, and She Dequn. As of the third quarter of 2023, Li Weiping, the largest shareholder, holds 18.37% of the company's shares; The second largest shareholder, Shan Lei, holds 13.59% of the shares, and Huang Biao and She Dequn hold 11.71% of the shares. The company has a wholly-owned subsidiary, Gaohua Sensing, and shares in Kaios Data and Guosheng Defense, with shareholding ratios of 13% and 10.42% respectively.
The company's revenue and net profit attributable to the parent company grew steadily, and the year-on-year growth rate slowed down. In the first three quarters of 2019-2023, the company achieved operating income of 130 million yuan, 156 million yuan, 226 million yuan, 276 million yuan and 223 million yuan respectively; The growth rate of operating income over the same period of last year was 19.70%, 45.24%, 21.74% and 10.85% respectively. In the first three quarters of 2019-2023, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company was 21 million yuan, 35 million yuan, 70 million yuan, 81 million yuan, and 61 million yuan respectively; The growth rate of net profit attributable to the parent company was 70.13%, 98.82%, 15.92% and 5.40% respectively over the same period of last year.
The company focuses on product and technology research and development, and since 2020, R&D expenses have been increasing, and the R&D expense ratio has increased. R&D expenses in the first three quarters of 2023 reached 32 million yuan, an increase of 24.09% over the same period last year. The company's R&D content includes: sensor chip R&D, sensor R&D, wireless sensor network system R&D, etc., among which a number of new sensor R&D projects serve national key projects. At the same time, in terms of sensor categories, the company completed the development of magnetostrictive displacement sensor spectroscopy, height sensor, speed sensor, etc., during the 2023 interim report reporting period, which further improved the company's response ability to diversified market demand.
Among the main businesses, the high-reliability sensor business contributed the most to the operating income and dominated the business. From 2019 to 2023H1, the revenue of high-reliability sensor business reached 109 million yuan, 132 million yuan, 202 million yuan, 239 million yuan, and 120 million yuan respectively, with relatively stable growth. Among the company's main products, MEMS sensors correspond to pressure sensors, humidity sensors and acceleration sensors, and non-MEMS sensors correspond to temperature sensors, vibration sensors and displacement sensors.
Compared with other domestic and foreign enterprises, the company is expected to take the lead in benefiting from the acceleration of domestic substitution. The company's main competitors in the industrial field include foreign manufacturers such as Danfoss and Drucker, as well as domestic manufacturers such as Ningbo CRRC Times Sensing Technology Co., Ltd. and Kangyu Measurement and Control Instrument Engineering Co., Ltd. Since foreign companies mainly provide standard products, and the company can customize according to customer needs, the company's products have better adaptability, so as to have a strong competitive advantage; Compared with domestic manufacturers, the company has mastered the core technologies of high-reliability sensor development and testing, sensor network systems, etc., and has the ability to design high-reliability sensor chips, and has accumulated profound technical advantages.
The company's MEMS technology involves multiple links in the industrial chain. From the perspective of the MEMS sensor industry chain, the company is involved in chip packaging (only for MEMS pressure-sensitive chips), sensor design, device packaging, and inspection and testing. At present, the company's chips under development are pressure-sensitive chips, of which the diffusion silicon principle chip has been mass-produced, and the SOI principle chip has entered the initial sample verification stage.
The company has the ability to independently design MEMS sensitive chips. At present, compared with the purchased chips, the self-developed chips have certain advantages in terms of working temperature range, nonlinearity and medium withstand voltage, etc., which can improve product accuracy, expand the scope of product application, and meet the higher needs of customers.
5. Minxin shares
Minxin Co., Ltd. is a semiconductor chip design company focusing on the R&D and sales of MEMS sensors, and its main product lines include MEMS microphones, MEMS pressure sensors and MEMS inertial sensors. As the only listed company in China that has mastered the design and manufacturing process capabilities of multi-category MEMS chips, the company is committed to becoming an industry-leading MEMS chip platform enterprise. After years of technology accumulation and R&D investment, the company has independent R&D capabilities and core technologies in the existing MEMS sensor chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and can independently design ASIC chips that provide signal conversion, processing or driving functions for MEMS sensor chips, and realize the localization of the whole production process of MEMS sensors.
The company is mainly engaged in the research and development and sales of MEMS sensor products. The MEMS sensor is generally composed of a MEMS chip and a matching ASIC chip, and its working principle is as follows: the MEMS chip uses semiconductor processing technology to manufacture a miniature circuit and mechanical system on the silicon wafer, converts the received external signal into signal changes such as capacitance, resistance, and charge, and then converts the above signal changes into electrical signals, and finally protects the chip through packaging and draws the signal out, so as to realize the function of external information acquisition and interaction. At present, the company's main product lines include MEMS acoustic sensors, MEMS pressure sensors and MEMS inertial sensors, while the company actively deploys MEMS force sensors, MEMS flow sensors and infrared thermopile sensors.
The company's products are mainly used in consumer electronics, automotive and medical fields. The company's MEMS acoustic sensor products are widely used in consumer electronics products such as smart phones, tablet computers, laptops, smart homes, wearable devices, etc., and the specific brands include Huawei, Transsion, Xiaomi, Samsung, OPPO, Lenovo, etc. The company's MEMS pressure sensor products are mainly used in consumer electronics, automotive and medical fields, among which the end customers of electronic sphygmomanometers mainly include Lexin Medical and Jiu'an Medical. With high product performance and cost performance, the company has accumulated high-quality customer resources and good brand awareness, and has established a stable cooperative relationship with customers, which is conducive to the company's further business and customer expansion in the future.
In terms of revenue structure, in the first half of 2023, the company's MEMS acoustic sensor, MEMS pressure sensor, and MEMS inertial sensor achieved operating income of 1.07/0.32/12 million yuan, accounting for 68.69%, 20.61%, and 7.65% of revenue, respectively.
As of December 1, 2023, Li Gang directly held 19.23% of the company's shares and was the actual controller of the company. According to the Concerted Action Agreement signed by Li Gang, Hu Wei and Mei Jiaxin, Hu Wei and Mei Jiaxin are the concert actors of Li Gang. As of September 30, 2023, Hu Wei directly held 2.96% of the company's shares, and Mei Jiaxin directly held 3.12% of the company's shares.
After more than ten years of R&D investment, the company has independent R&D capabilities and core technology accumulation in MEMS sensor chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing, and has realized the mass production and shipment of MEMS acoustic sensors, MEMS pressure sensors and MEMS inertial sensors. Compared with the large-scale integrated circuit industry with a high degree of specialization and the difficulty of R&D is concentrated on the design side, the MEMS industry has strong R&D difficulties and barriers in chip design, wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing. The company's technical advantages in the field of independent R&D and design in each production link of the product have laid the foundation for the continuous upgrading of existing product lines and the development of new MEMS products in the future.
In the field of MEMS microphones, the company develops MEMS microphone products with smaller chip size and package size; In the field of pressure sensors, the company continues to expand the application field and increase market share, and develops new products such as micro pressure sensor chips; In terms of inertial sensors, the company optimizes the production process to improve the performance and reliability of its products.
06
Future Trends
1. Growth space in the field of MEMS inertia
From the perspective of the future development direction of MEMS inertial product applications, the main opportunities are in autonomous driving, humanoid robots, and higher integration and intelligence.
From the perspective of intelligent driving MEMS inertial navigation applications, L3 and above autonomous driving requires safe, reliable, low-cost, and high-precision MEMS inertial sensors. From L2 to L3, the safety of autonomous driving is prominent, and at present, the global penetration rate of autonomous driving is dominated by L1 and L2, and the penetration rate of L3~L5 is low. The autonomous driving technology in the domestic passenger car market is mainly L2, and L3 has not yet landed. According to the ICV forecast, the global autonomous driving penetration rate will be L2 and above in 2023~2027. There is a trend of increasing superiors. Among them, the penetration rate of L2/L2+ is expected to reach 58% in 2027, and the penetration rate of L3 is expected to reach 25% in 2027. Sensors with high reliability are the only way to ensure a higher level of autonomous driving.
Humanoid robots have opened up the growth space of MEMS inertial sensors. The MEMS inertial sensor can obtain the angular velocity and acceleration data of the humanoid robot, and through the MEMSIM∪ it can monitor the real-time status, position information and motion trajectory of the humanoid robot, and maintain the posture balance of the humanoid robot to complete actions such as walking, running, and squatting. A single humanoid robot uses one or more MEMSIMU, and the market space is broad. MEMSIMU is fused with other sensors, such as stereo cameras, joint encoders, force and torque sensors, foot contact sensors, etc., to achieve data complementarity, estimate the position, velocity, direction, angular rate and angular momentum of the center of mass of the attitude foot, and jointly feedback the state of the robot and complete the next action, which is applied to the robot's squatting and standing, walking back and forth, going up and down stairs, avoiding obstacles and other scenarios.
2. The high-performance MEMS inertial sensor industry has advanced technology and a considerable market scale
High-performance MEMS inertial sensors have high requirements for parameter indicators, and with the support of new structures and new processes, the technical level is advanced.
The performance and technical level of MEMS gyroscope is the concentrated embodiment of the technical level of the high-performance MEMS inertial sensor industry, and the requirements for MEMS structure design, process and ASIC design are higher, so the MEMS gyroscope is taken as an example to illustrate: in terms of structural design, the high-performance MEMS gyroscope has developed from the traditional two-mass scheme to the new symmetrical structure such as four-mass and multi-ring structure, and the sensitivity, anti-interference and accuracy have been improvedIn terms of circuit design, a digital-analog hybrid ASIC circuit is used to meet the requirements of small size and low power consumption of high-performance MEMS gyroscopes.
Therefore, high-performance MEMS inertial sensors adopt a higher level of technology and better performance, which can meet the needs of some high-end application scenarios.
High-performance MEMS inertial sensors are mainly used in high-end industry, unmanned systems, high reliability and other fields, with a considerable market scale and high industry concentration. According to Yole statistics, in 2021, the world's high-performance MEMS inertial sensor market size will be about 4.523 billion yuan (including MEMS inertial sensor systems), and the market share is concentrated in the hands of industry giants such as Honeywell, ADI, and Northrop Grumman/Litef, with the top three companies in market share accounting for more than 50% of the total market share, with a high market concentration.
3.AI entry into the market accelerates the industrialization process, MEMS IMUs and related business domestic companies may benefit
The entry of AI large models accelerates the industrialization process of humanoid robots, and domestic inertial device/module manufacturers are expected to accelerate their substitution. In 2023, both AI large models and humanoid robots have made "leapfrog" breakthroughs, and in 2024, the trend of "AI large models + humanoid robots" is becoming increasingly clear: (1) In March, NVIDIA released ProjectGR00T, a general basic model for humanoid robots, and said that it is developing a comprehensive AI platform for leading humanoid robot companies; (2) In March, Figure announced that its Figure01 robot was connected to the OpenAI large model; (3) In April, UBTECH announced that its humanoid robot WalkerS was connected to Baidu's Wenxin model. The access of AI large models has further enhanced the capabilities of humanoid robots in multimodal perception, and the advantages of AI platforms such as simplified design and optimized integration have further accelerated the industrialization process of humanoid robots. Considering that no domestic inertial sensing manufacturers have claimed to have achieved mass application in the field of humanoid robots, we can pay attention to the midstream module and downstream system manufacturers that have made faster progress in the field of automotive autonomous driving, as well as upstream device manufacturers with independent R&D and design capabilities.
07
Refer to the research report
1. Haitong Securities - Information Equipment Industry: The large-scale application of MEMS integrated microphones has become a trend
2. Southwest Securities-Const-300445-2023 profits will achieve high growth, and the future of MEMS pressure sensors can be expected
3. Minsheng Securities-Minxin Co., Ltd.-688286-In-depth Report: Multi-dimensional layout to build a leader in the whole MEMS industry chain
4. Debang Securities-Gaohua Technology-688539-Deeply cultivate high-reliability sensors, and have broad growth space in military and civilian fields
5. Huaan Securities - Semiconductor Industry Depth: MEMS sensors focus on three major application areas: radio frequency, inertia and pressure
6. Ping An Securities-Innosilicon-688582-MEMS inertial sensor leader, product performance has reached the international advanced level
7. Shanxi Securities-MEMS Inertial Sensor Special Report in the Integrated Circuit Industry: The Big Wave Begins to See Gold, and the High-quality Target of the MEMS Inertial Sensor Industry Chain is Concerned
8. Shanxi Securities - Machinery Industry Humanoid Robot Series Report (2): MEMS IMU or the best solution for humanoid robots to achieve bipedal motion balance
9. Industrial Securities-In-depth Research Report on MEMS Inertial Navigation Industry in the National Defense and Military Industry: The application space has huge potential, and the rapid development is at the right time
10. Haitong Securities-Saiwei Electronics-300456-Company Announcement Comments: Focus on the main business of MEMS foundry and achieve high-quality development
11. Guosen Securities-Sai Microelectronics-300456-Google promotes the continuous deployment of OCS switches, and MEMS optical switches have broad prospects
12. Caitong Securities-Innosilicon-688582-MEMS inertial sensor leader, with a broad space for domestic substitution